Treat Me Seventeen
by TrackerJay
Summary: Following a tragic incident, Katniss Everdeen fights to rebuild her life. But her abusive boyfriend and equally depressed and abusive mother prevent any improvement. Katniss sings and dances to get away from it all. Then she meets a blue eyed boy, and her whole life is changed.
1. Chapter 1

I fight a battle every day. To never think about it. To never think about that terrible night. When I lost my parents. One physically, one mentally. That night changed my whole life. Mom became constantly hid under a cloud of depression, my little sister had to depend on me for survival, my friedns treated me like I would break at the slightest mention of a family and I had to become the mother figure to my little sister while trying to live a normal seventeen year old life.

I am Katniss Everdeen. I lost my dad. I was there. I watched him die. My mom was in an institution for a year and beats me and Prim. She suffers from depression. I want everything to go back to the way it was.

I want everything to be normal again.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: See you at the bottom**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games or its characters, all credit goes to Suzanne Collins.**  
"Catshit! Get up!"

I have a nice dream, and wake up to a nightmare. Also known as my mother. I sigh and crawl out of bed, pain shooting through my arm. Gale hit me again last night. I make a mental note to break up with him when I go over to his house after school. Stifling a huge yawn, I shuffle over to my bathroom and take a shower.

The hot water soothes my tight skin and my headache leaves as I massage shampoo and conditioner into my hair. This is definitely the best place to think.

I jog downstairs with my backpack and gym-bag-that-I-don't-use-for-the-gym bag slung over my shoulders where my hair hangs dripping. Grabbing an apple I hold it in my mouth and hug Prim goodbye. I'm almost running late.

I conveniently bend down to play with my shoelaces and miss getting hit in the head by a vase as it goes flying past my head and smashing into pieces on the wall.

"I hope you die at school today!" Mom yells behind me.

"Love you too, mom!" I reply, closing the door behind me. I know she beats me but if I beat her back it gives her something to pin on me. If my violence-toward-my-mom is clean, then I'm not the one who gets into trouble. She is.

…

I arrive at my locker just as the last bell goes and I'm certain that I have the wrong books for my first class. I nudge the door open with my foot and plonk myself down at a desk. I wait ten minutes into the lesson after confirming that I indeed have my English books for Math and I raise my hand.

"Yes, Miss Everdeen?" Mr Flickerman asks.

"Sorry sir, but I accidentally picked up the wrong books. I was almost late altogether, I had to help out my mom,"

'Help out my mom' really means that she attacked me again. Mr Flickerman knows about my mom's violence towards me and Prim and understands me fully.

"Yes, here's a hall pass," he says, handing me the pardon slip.

"Thank you, sir," I say, rushing out the door and into the hallway. I reach my locker in record time and I'm closing it when a body is pressed up against my back.

"Hey Catty," Gale slurs into my ear. Although he's seventeen and still in school, he has a drinking problem. Like my Uncle Haymitch. He brings a water bottle to school that's filled with vodka it's that bad.

"Hello, Gale," I say, half bored the other half terrified.

I turn around to face him but Gale still has his arousal pressed up against me.

"How about a kiss?" he says. It's not like I can reject him. Gale forces his lips against mine, his mouth tasting like booze.

I used to enjoy his kisses. But then his alcohol intake and the amount of violence and anger he took out on me upped. They used to make dragonflies- I think butterflies are too girly for me- flutter around in my stomach. Now they just give me painful flashbacks of what he did to me.

He beat me in drunken rage to the point of no walking. He still beats me to the point of no walking. He raped me once, and got me pregnant, but I had an abortion. I did not want to carry that swine's child and give it a life. But I couldn't report him, because he threatened to hurt my family. And as much as I hate my mom, I don't want to see either of them get hurt, especially Prim. I lept out of his bed a damaged girl.

"Gale, I need to get to class," I say, pushing him off me.

"No, you don't," he slurs, grabbing me from behind.

I perform 'SING' from Miss Congeniality and take off running down the hallway back towards my class, the sound of Gale's swearing echoing off the walls.

…

I wake from my daydreaming trance when the bell goes off for the end of school. Seven crap hours of our lives and then I have another two at Gale's house. I drive his car there, he's too pissed to hold the wheel.

We get inside the house and he falls down onto the sofa. At least he's sitting down so I decide to break the news.

"Gale, I don't want to be with you anymore," I say. Why coat it in candy when the bitter truth will reveal itself anyway.

"What?" Gale asks, he sounds like he's sober again.

"I don't want to be with you anymore," I repeat, walking towards the door. "Goodbye,"

Something hard connects with my back and I go sprawling on the floor. A rolling pin rolls towards my face. Fuck that thing hurts.

I try to get up but Gale hits me again with the rolling pin.

Gale yells and advances toward me again, rolling pin raised in drunken rage. He strikes me on the shoulder and I face-plant into his floor. Gale hits me again, this time in the side. I curl up and cry and she hits me again. Gale hits me a few more times, all around my middle.

"How could you! How could you want to leave me, you little slut! After all I've done for you!" He screams, slamming the rolling pin hard into my abdomen. If I were still pregnant will Gale's child, it'd be dead by now. The blow winds me and it causes my days' meals to make a disgusting reappearance.

Gale hits me a few more times before ceasing.

"I never wanna see you again, Catshit," Gale says, setting down the rolling pin and picking me up.

I try to squirm out of his hold but he just throws me outside, down his porch and I somehow manage to end up on the footpath, agony is everywhere.

It's raining and my vision is blurred. The world starts to spin and I feel like I'm floating. All I can see is a tuft of what looks like barley. Then everything goes black.

**Hi guys, hope you all like the chapter. A lot of drama to come, I assure you. I'd like to say thank-you to my first two reviewers; bizzylizzy14 and Kittycatgirl0. Thank you for your support, I am working on the next chap, I don't know when it will be finished, school goes back in two days for me and I don't know how tired I'm gonna be sooo, thanks and goodbye!**


	3. Chapter 3

"Katniss? Katniss, wake up, you need to go to school," I hear a little girl say.

Peeling open my eyes and squinting through my arms that are folded across my face.

I make some sort of animal sound and turn over, my shirt sliding up a little.

"I don't wanna go to school," I moan. Prim gasps behind me.

"Katniss," she breathes, "What happened to you? You've got bruises and cut all over you!"

Oh right, the cuts and bruises.

"I broke up with Gale last night," I reply, slapping my pillow over my face to calm the headache that's pounding inside my brain.

"I'll let you stay home. Tell me exactly what happened," Prim says, easing onto the bed beside me.

"I went over to his house after school as usual, and I told him that I didn't want to be with him anymore. He got super pissed and started beating me with a rolling pin, he threw me outside and I blacked out. And then you probably came with someone and brought me home," I reply, turning to face Prim. She looks warily confused.

"I didn't bring you home," she says.

"Then how did I get here?"

"I was at Rue's house, and when I came home you were already in bed. The cut on your head had been cleaned and your arms and legs were bandaged so I assumed that you took care of yourself," Prim shrugs.

"I didn't get myself home, I blacked out on the sidewalk," I say. Prim looks at me sceptically.

"It's true! I'm not lying!" I protest.

"I believe you, just get some rest and I'll look after you," Prim says, pulling the covers up to my chin.

If Prim didn't find me, and I blacked out on the sidewalk, then how did I get home?

…

Barley. That's the first thing that pops into my mind when I jolt awake. It's the afternoon now, and the sunlight is a pinkie orange. And something smells delicious.

I creep downstairs, like I haven't seen a plate of food for decades, and into the kitchen, where Prim is slaving away over the stove standing on tiptoes on a crate.

"I made beef stew, sleepy-head," Prim says, blowing her fringe out of her face.

"Mmmm…" Is all I say. I dip a spoon into the pot of beef stew, and Prim slaps me.

"It's not ready yet!" she scolds.

"I don't care, I'm starving," I reply around a mouthful of beef stew.

"So you still don't know who brought you home?" Prim asks, setting the pot on the table.

I shake my head. "All I know is that I blacked out and woke up here, that's all I remember."

I go to the bathroom to wash my hands.

Turning on the faucet, I wait for the hot water to kick in, and look out the window.

I can hear shouting outside. It's between two people. One is definitely male, and I'm guessing the other is female.

I press my finger down on the blinds in the bathroom and squint through the tiny crack. I can make out two figures a couple houses down. A short, plump woman is standing in the doorway of her house, hands on hips and a flour covered apron. She looks majorly pissed. She's yelling something at a boy; he's standing at the bottom of his porch stairs, obviously ready to leave whenever. He looks pretty angry at the woman too.

I wind the window open a crack so I can hear them through the fly-screen.

"I can do what I want, I'm not a child! Just because you didn't want another boy doesn't mean you have to treat me like shit!" the boy yells.

"You _ungrateful _piece of shit! You're lucky to be living with a roof over your head, and we're feeding you good food and clothing you! And you will listen to me, I am you _mother!_"

I think this woman and my mother would get along very well together.

"I don't care what you think of me! I'm going to tell her right now!" The boy starts to walk off, but the mother throws her rolling pin, hitting him just above the eyebrow. The skin above his eyebrow splits open just a crack and his crimson blood is trickling in a little red stream down the side of his face.

"Fine! Go see that Seam slut! But don't come back to your cousins' house or anyone's house. _You are no longer part of this family._"

"I never was part of this family!"

The boy pulls himself to his feet and starts staggering down the lane like a drunk. I wonder where he's going?

Then it hits me. He's looking at my house. He's actually coming toward my house. His mom called me a slut! Bitch.

My heart's hammering in my chest so hard and loud I'm paranoid that it might burst out of my chest completely. I try to act normal and wash my hands under the scalding water, destroying any germs.

A series of knocks sound at the door, and I can hear from my position pressed up against the bathroom door that Prim opens it.

"Hello, how can I help you?" I silently chuckle to myself. Prim always sounds older than she is when she meets or speaks to complete strangers.

"Uh, I'm here to see your sister. Is she here?" the boy sounds hopeful.

Please say no, please say no, please say no.

"Katniss!" Ugh, damn it! I compose myself and step out of the bathroom.

"Yeah?"

"Someone's here to talk to you," she says, winking at me as she saunters away as I walk up to the door.

"Um, hi. Look, you probably don't remember me but…. I-I c-c-carried you home the d-d-day you broke up with your boyfriend,"

For a moment I feel like slamming the door in his face and completely ignoring his claim. But I need an explanation.

"Sorry?"

"I, carried you home the night you broke up with your boyfriend," he says again, this time with more confidence.

"Right," I say slowly, processing this information. "And who are you, exactly?" I ask, studying his sexy, toned bod- Katniss! Stop it!

"Peeta Mellark. I live about seven houses down from you, just off the Seam," he says, pointing back to the way he had come.

"Come inside," I say. Peeta looks panicked. "So I can clean up your forehead." Peeta nods slightly and hesitantly steps through the doorway, like a friendly landmine might go off at any minute.

I gesture for him to sit on our old rundown sofa while I rummage through the sink cupboard and produce our first aid kit.

"So how did you find me?" I ask as I gently wipe the blood away from Peeta's cut.

"What do you mean?"

"You said you carried me home the night I broke up with Gale. How did you find me?" I ask again.

"Oh, uh, I had a bit of a disagreement with my mom, 'cause my brothers told her who I had a crush on and my dad suggested I go for a jog to calm down while he did the same to mom and I saw Gale throw you off the porch. I came over to see if you were okay but your lights were out cold," Wow. I'm touched. A complete stranger who I've never met before actually cares about my well-being.

"You're all done," I say, packing away the first aid kit.

"Thanks," Peeta says, standing up.

"Come with me for a second," I say, and walk out the door, Peeta at my heels.

"Where are we going?" he asks, clearly confused.

"To the place where I thank people," I reply, quickening my pace.


	4. Bad News

Hi guys, I know I haven't updated anything in a while, school went back a tiny while ago and life has been pretty hectic. Plus, I've had a hard time getting along with my mom so there's been a kind of depression…

Anyway, I'm sorry to say that I'm going to delete my account on fanfic archive. But I'm continuing my stories on a different site called wattpad. This site loads more frequently for me and easier to access. Sorry to leave, but I'll see you all on wattpad.


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